In Press Release, Public programs
Photo Credits: EarthWork promotional image photography (clockwise): “Slope” linocut by Matthew Regier, Tallgrass Prairie Preserve photo by Elizabeth Snell, and farm and veggies photos courtesy of Brooke Salvaggio.

Kansas City, MO. February 27, 2023: This spring Charlotte Street will host Earth/Work: Artists & Sustainable Living, a conversation series featuring individuals creating sustainable lives—radically reimagining our connection to and use of our planet. Audiences will hear short, informal presentations about what led each speaker to embark on their creative paths and also what keeps them moving forward. Speakers include Matthew and Tia Regier, Carl Stafford, Brooke Salvaggio and Ryan Tenney.

In partnership with the conversation series, Charlotte Street will host an hour of family-friendly activities before the speakers begin. The first in the series, led by Julie Farstad, will teach children about purple martin birds and why they depend on human-made birdhouses. The workshop features painting gourd birdhouses. All materials will be provided. All ages are welcome, but children under eight must be accompanied by a caregiver, who is also welcome to participate. Spots are limited. Please RSVP in advance.

Earth/Work: Artists & Sustainable Living speaker series is organized by Elizabeth Stehling Snell in partnership with Charlotte Street.

The series and activities free and open to the public at the Charlotte Street Campus, 3333 Wyoming, KCMO 64111. 

Earth/Work Schedule
March 11, 2023

1PM to 2PM

Activity – Kids’ Purple Martin Welcome Workshop by Julie Farstad

RSVP – https://bit.ly/purple-martins-workshop

2PM to 3PM

Speakers – Matthew and Tia Regier of Matfield Green, Kansas

RSVP – bit.ly/earthwork-march11

March 25, 2023

2PM to 3PM

Speaker – Carl Stafford of My Region Wins!

RSVP – bit.ly/earthwork-march25

April 8, 2023

2PM to 3PM

Speaker – Brooke Salvaggio of Urbavore Farm and Compost Collective

RSVP – https://bit.ly/earthwork-april8

April 22, 2023

1PM to 2PM

Activity – Sun Printing with Mona Cliff

2PM to 3PM

Speaker – Ryan Tenney of Sankara Farm

RSVP – https://bit.ly/earthwork-april22

ABOUT THE KIDS’ PURPLE MARTIN WELCOME WORKSHOP

Purple martins are amazing native birds who spend their spring and summer months in the eastern half of North America. March is the month when purple martins usually arrive in the Kansas City area as part of their annual migration. In this fun, educational workshop, Julie Farstad will teach children about purple martins and why they depend on human-made birdhouses. Together we will paint gourd birdhouses and talk about how incredible purple martins are! All ages are welcome, but children under eight must be accompanied by a caregiver, who is also welcome to participate. Spots are limited. Please RSVP in advance.

This project is an extension of Farstad’s Flowers For Marlborough Project, which confronts neighborhood and ecological blight by sharing the beauty and function of native plants with her Marlborough neighborhood in Kansas City, through large scale public paintings, free plant painting workshops, and free native plant seedling give aways.

ABOUT THE EARTH/WORK SPEAKERS

ABOUT MATTHEW AND TIA REGIER

Matthew and Tia Regier are both from farming backgrounds, the Regiers live in Matfield Green, Kansas. In 2019, they acquired possession of an old elementary school after a conversation with Wes Jackson of The Land Institute and Robert Jensen of Third Coast Activist Resource Center. Third Coast purchased the building and the Regiers began initial renovations and co-founded a new organization, The School for Rural Culture and Creativity, now a 501(c)(3) organization. The vision of The School is not to create economic opportunities but to ask what cultural practices are necessary to generate the kinds of rural communities that we think are critical for our future on the land. For more information about the activities and developments of The School, visit schoolforruralculture.org. Matthew is also an artist and printmaker making linocuts and monotypes that respond directly to his impressions and memories of the prairie. His work can be found at the printmaking studio at The School for Rural Culture and Creativity and online at matthewregier.com.

ABOUT CARL STAFFORD

Carl Stafford was born and raised on the west side of District Five in Kansas City, Missouri, Carl Stafford is the founder and visionary of MY REGION WINS! (MRW!), a non-profit whose mission is to transcend everyday challenges by using the arts to nurture creative and undeveloped ideas that shape society. His vision is to have art and nature be instrumental in addressing environmental and social injustice issues. Stafford’s work includes transforming blighted areas into vibrant native plant gardens, organic gardening, coaching, speaking, restoring, and advocating. His goal is to revive the west side of KC’s District 5 by using natural resources as assets, generating revenue to compensate residents with the aim for neighborhoods to become self-sustaining economies. His work on “Boon Area 1,” an environmental artwork installation that also acts as a community garden, was a 2022 recipient of the Charlotte Street Foundation Cultural Producer Grant. In 2021, Carl Stafford was recognized as an “Innovator to Watch” by Grinnell College for his efforts to rectify damage created by redlining, systematic divesting, and environmental degradation in Kansas City.

ABOUT BROOKE SALVAGGIO

Brooke Salvaggio is an organic farmer and sustainability leader in the Kansas City area. She owns and operates URBAVORE Urban Farm with her partner Dan Heryer where they produce vegetables, fruits, pastured eggs and pork using regenerative farming practices. The couple also manages Compost Collective KC—a popular curbside compost pickup service that diverts 12,000 pounds of food waste from the landfill every week. This food waste is brought to the farm and turned into nutrient-rich compost, curbing climate change and improving the farm’s soil to grow more and better food for the KC Community. Once upon a time Brooke was a visual artist. Now she uses dirt as her medium for artistic expression.

ABOUT RYAN TENNEY

Ryan Tenney is a returning generation farmer and artist. He is the owner of Sankara Farm, a 27-acre farm founded in 2017. Through his work and multiple grants, he has been able to provide access to culturally relevant, sustainable agriculture education in historically underserved communities. He is also the founder of a community arts organization, AgroArt, a 2018 Charlotte Street Foundation Rocket Grant awardee, which promotes creative socio-ecological intervention strategies for artists of color. His most recent project, The Sankara Seed Project, was awarded Mid-America Arts Alliance’s Interchange Artist Fellowship which supported his engagement directly with Black and African heritage seeds and foodways. He has worked extensively in arts education and community engagement, providing hands-on learning opportunities to historically underserved communities. As an artist practicing for over 15 years, Tenney has engaged numerous audiences in multimedia projects and sustained a focus on development of culturally and socially relevant approaches to art and urban agriculture.

ABOUT ELIZABETH STEHLING SNELL

Elizabeth Stehling Snell lives in Kansas City, Missouri with her husband and young son. Her work as an artist often uses symbolic movements and communal dances as the basis to explore emotional landscapes. A recent video project, Pause, created early in the COVID-19 pandemic had dancers moving outside among native plants and trees. Since then, her personal interests have focused more on plants, sustainability, and connections to the ground beneath our feet. Elizabeth worked as Creative Content Producer at Kansas City Ballet for seven years and now is Communications Manager at Mid-America Arts Alliance. elizabethstehling.com

ABOUT CHARLOTTE STREET

Charlotte Street centers Kansas City’s most forward-thinking visual artists, writers, and performers—acting as the primary incubator, provocateur, and connector for the region’s contemporary arts community, and its leading advocate on the national stage. Since 1997, Charlotte Street has distributed over $2 million in awards and grants to artists and their innovative projects, and connected individual artists to each other and to the greater Kansas City community. For more information about Charlotte Street, its awards, programs, and initiatives, visit www.charlottestreet.org.

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